Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan Citi's 'Results Over Effort' Message Signals the End of Comfortable Work—Amazon Follows
Jan 23, 2026
A hard look at Citi’s shift to measurable outcomes and what it means for comfortable work. Discussion of Amazon’s flatter structures and productivity-per-employee focus. Exploration of how AI makes ambiguity intolerable and forces clearer accountability. Notes on shrinking management layers, faster promotion timelines, and the new sink-or-swim reality across industries.
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Results Over Effort Becomes The Metric
- Jane Fraser's "We are not graded on effort. We are judged on our results." reframes visible effort as irrelevant.
- Outcomes become the primary signal of relevance as technology makes effort invisible.
Push For Business, Not Busy Work
- Ask for the business and fight for a full wallet with clients instead of settling.
- Leaders must adopt aggressive, results-driven mindsets to shift culture toward impact.
AI Removes Excuses For Ambiguity
- AI and automation compress cycle times and surface performance data in real time.
- That removes excuses for ambiguity and forces stricter accountability.
